Microsoft Dynamics-Navision for Steel Manufacturer

In a bid to streamline its disparate business processes and employee responsibility, Vallabh Steel, a manufacturer of galvanized pipes, sheets and other discrete components has implemented Microsoft Dynamics-Navision solution at its facilities in Ludhiana and Rajpura.

The solution was implemented by Munjal eSystems, who replaced Vallabh’s entire legacy system and integrated operations at the two locations.

Vallabh was earlier running an internally developed FoxPro based system. The modules developed internally for processes such as financial management, sales and distributions were not yielding the desired results both in terms of reliability and flexibility.

“In addition to being disparate, the earlier system was not a reliable one. In fact, it could be tampered with, very easily. The data in the FoxPro based system could be manipulated and misused by anyone with access to the system,” said Kapil Kumar, who headed the three-member MeS implementation team.

After carefully analyzing the various needs of the steel manufacturer, the team customized and deployed various modules including GL, Purchase & Payables, Sales & Receivables, Inventory, Fixed Assets, Export Import, and Workflow Management modules at Vallabh.

One of the major problem with the FoxPro based previous system was that it was prone to tampering and data manipulation, and there was no way to authenticate the users.

“There had been some instances, wherein Vallabh employees had fiddled with the company’s data and hence it was seeking a solution, which would put an end to such actions in future,” added Harpreet Singh, another member of the implementation team.

The entire implementation took a couple of months for completion, and Vallabh went live with solution in February this year. Prior to choosing Navision, the steel components manufacturer was also approached by other vendors including SAP. However, after weighing its options from cost perspective, functionality and adaptability perspective, Vallabh decided to go with Navision.

One of the special features of the implementation was the capability incorporated into the system, to ascertain sales price list of different products manufactured by Vallabh. In this, when various sales and price related figures from different territories are fed into the system, they are presented in such a manner so as to allow the managing director (MD) to have a comprehensive view of the varied market conditions. This enables him to fix a specific sales price list for specific regions as per his discretion. To prevent any tampering with the facility, the MeS team has provisioned special rights for him to enter the system.

The current system runs on HP ProLiant ML350 server and the default database for the solution from Microsoft. While the main server is hosted at Vallabh’s Ludhiana facility, it is connected to the systems at Rajpura via leased lines. Currently ten users are using the ERP.

Munjal eSystems (MeS) is an independent SBU of the Hero Group. It’s a Microsoft certified partner and delivers consulting, implementation and other support services for Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) to the SMBs/ SMEs in India.

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